The Wisconsin Health Information Exchange has been awarded a contract worth $110,000 from the State of Wisconsin for calendar year 2006.  WHIE intends to use the funds to develop its governance structure and administrative staff.

WHIE's stated mission is to improve the quality and accessibility of healthcare and the organization's initial efforts will be aimed at providing emergency clinicians with software tools that lead to improved quality and efficiency of emergency care provided to Medicaid patients. The contract also will enable WHIE to develop a plan for a pilot regional patient encounter index linked to a state surveillance system and to begin utilizing electronic health records.

Also on the WHIE planning agenda, pending further funding, is the creation of a regional medication reconciliation system, and the implementation of an electronic results routing and messaging system to improve efficiencies in outpatient clinics.